Tuesday, December 9, 2008

I Kinda Miss Tom Crean

Sacrilege, I know, but hear me out before you commence ripping me to shreds.

Saturday was an awesome night for every MU Basketball fan. We beat the fucking Badgers! There is little else in my sports fanhood that brings me more joy than Marquette beating Madison. But something was just a little bit off after that game. Rather than the icy, barely there handshake between the coaches that we've grown accustomed to seeing after such games, we saw a lengthy, warm embrace. And if I didn't know better, I'd think there were a couple cordial words spoken between the two coaches. Then, afterwards, our coach heaped respect upon their marmot-looking coach, calling him a hall of fame coach and saying that he could only hope to ever win as many games as that red devil. Then, when our coach was asked if this was a benchmark win he didn't respond "Hell yeah, we beat our biggest rivals," like I would have. Instead he went back to his standard response about being judged as a father and husband rather than by who he coaches and who his teams beat. I realized then.... That a little part of me misses Tom Crean.

Now we all know, that Tom Crean is kind of a hateable bastard. I don't think I'd find anyone around here that would argue that point. For all his merits as a basketball coach, he always came off as an arrogant, pompous asshole. And unless he's the coach of your team, you are going to HATE that guy. But for some reason, when he was our coach, I kinda liked the fact that other people couldn't stand him. I don't know what it is. Maybe I've been hanging out with Moongoose too long, listening to him root for Chris Jericho, and TO and shit. But I kind of enjoyed being the bad guy. There's just something that I liked about having opponents not just being upset that they lost, but being totally pissed that they lost to that guy. I dug the fact that well respected coaches like Rick Pitino would stoop to fabricating news articles just to beat that f'ing guy.

Now be clear, I do not mean this as a knock on Coach Buzz in any way. I think he could be a real good basketball coach. (I mean really, how long did it take you to pick your jaw up off the floor when you saw MU go into a 1-3-1 Saturday night? I know it took me a good 30 seconds.) And I hope that Buzz wins a whole ton of games for Marquette. And maybe it will just take me some time to get used to his style. But every time he puts on his "aw shucks" schtick after a game and heaps praise on the opposition, it just seems like something is missing. Maybe, I'm just a dick, and I want my coach to say what I'm thinking:

Q: Coach, is this a big win for you and your program? A: You bet your ass it is! Fuck those guys!!

Yeah, I know that no coach would actually say that. But some coaches (one in particular) I know would say exactly that, only wrapped in a cloak of faux-respect. I guess what I'm saying is that everyone loves a good villain in sports (or loves to hate them anyways), and for a while we were that villain and it was fun. Having people think "Yeah, it sucks that they beat us, but Coach Buzz is such a tremendous human being I really can't be mad at 'em" just isn't quite the same. Though I hope people are saying exactly that a whole lot, for many years to come.

While I enjoyed the stare downs between Crean and Pitino, Crean and Bo, and Crean and Bobby Gonzalez as much as the next guy ... Crean's "I'm a badass" routine always seemed a little trite to me. Bobby Knight can pull it off. Pitino can, too. But Crean? He just kind of seemed like a bitch whenever he pulled that shit.

Now, what I just said is, of course, revisionist history in light of what's happened in the last 10 months.